Family blames North Myrtle Beach hotel after pool incident left son hospitalized

A tourist that visited North Myrtle Beach said an incident at a hotel pool put her son’s life in danger after the 9-year-old had a chemical reaction and was hospitalized.

Sally Foster, who stayed at the Prince Resort in August with her family, didn’t expect her trip would end with her son Sedrice laying in a hospital bed.

Calls seeking comment from the hotel were not immediately returned.

Foster, of West Virginia, said her son is doing much better since the incident, but she feels like there isn’t much she can do about the situation but share her story.

Foster said on Aug. 5 she visited the hotel’s pool with Sedrice and her 11-year-old son McKinley.

The pool, which was on the hotel’s ninth floor, was pretty deserted except for a few other families that day.

Foster, who has visited Myrtle Beach many times, recalled the moment when Sedrice suddenly came up to the surface of the pool and began screaming at the top of his lungs.

“He was was yelling ‘I can’t breathe. I can’t see. My eyes hurt. They burn. I need to go to the hospital,’’ she said. “It was a blood-curdling scream like I’ve never heard, and this went on for a while.”

Foster tried to calm him down when a group of moms said they smelled a strong chlorine smell and saw a green-yellowish gas coming from the pool.

The mom’s called 911 and Foster, who was still trying to comfort her son, flagged down an employee walking past to inform them of the situation.

A little while later, a fireman came up to the pool followed by a Prince employee just a few minutes later, Foster said. The employee assured her them the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control had recently inspected the pool, and that there was nothing wrong with it.

However, Foster, who is a registered nurse, said her son was throwing up and had what she thought to be respiratory failure. Foster says the hotel staff did not respond appropriately to the situation.

“At this point, my child cannot breathe,” Foster said. “He is laying on a stretcher, and this woman is more concerned with her elevator. The man upstairs was more concerned with his pool. He didn’t want to evacuate the pool.”

She said none of the the Prince’s staff were concerned about her son and didn’t even ask them their names or room number. They also didn’t lead the first responders to them, adding that their response time was delayed because they didn’t know what floor the pool was on, Foster said.

“My concern is this pool is obviously dangerous, and the hotel is not able to adequately provide a response in the event of an emergency,” she said. “This could’ve happened to anybody’s child.”

Like many other Myrtle Beach area tourists, Foster took her concerns online and posted a negative comment about her family’s experience at the hotel.

Mold, bed bugs and roaches -- all have been the subject of many complaints about hotels along the Grand Strand.

After posting a review, Foster said resort officials told her she should’ve notified the front desk.

“It’s my fault that I didn’t notify the front desk, even though I told two employees what was happening,” Foster said. “To me, that’s their job to notify their staff. Not mine.”

Foster believes her son had a chemical response from the pool and contacted DHEC to report the hotel a few days later.

When there is an incident at a hotel that results in a death, injury, EMS response or hospital visit, it is supposed to be reported to the department in writing on a form within 72 hours of the event, according to Ron Aiken, DHEC Media Relations Director.

But the Prince Resort did not do that, he added.

The state department routinely conducts at least two unannounced inspections for all public pools a year during the swimming season and will pursue an investigation if there are any incidents or complaints, according to DHEC.

The department was notified of the pool incident at Prince Resort on Aug. 8, and an unannounced inspection was performed the following day.

The state’s inspection report identified low water level in the pool and a malfunctioning automatic controller, which is connected to the chemical feed equipment and regulates pH and chlorine levels, according to DHEC.

“The automatic controller was not installed with the required safety interlocks. Pressure cut off works, but power cut off did not disengage unit when manual,” the inspection report stated.

If it isn’t working correctly, a department official said it can cause the chemical feed pumps to add the wrong amount of chemicals.

During previous incidents, this has led chlorine fumes to rise from the pool. But since DHEC staff was not present at the time of the Aug. 5 incident, they can only record what came from their investigation.

Until the pool fixes all the problems listed in the report and goes through another inspection, it cannot reopen. On Aug. 11, the hotel contacted DHEC for another inspection. All the problems were addressed, and the pool was allowed to reopen, DHEC officials said.

“I think that people need to be warned about the dangers of a commercial pool, and people definitely need to be warned about a resort that can’t handle an emergency,” she added.

Foster, her husband and sons had to stay at the hotel for a few more days because they were worried about transporting Sedrice and didn’t want to risk his health.

This story was originally published August 16, 2022 at 5:00 AM.